| Probable Starting Pitchers |
| Day |
Illinois |
Coastal Carolina |
| Tue. 6 p.m. CT |
RHP Maldonado (0-0, 2.77) |
LHP Veneziano (3-0, 3.58) |
| Wed. 6 p.m. CT |
LHP Lavender (1-1, 5.40) |
RHP Parker (0-0, 7.15) |
SCHEDULE
TUESDAY, 6 p.m. CT vs. Coastal Carolina » Illini Slugger (foot long bacon wrapped hot dog) // Baseball Bingo
WEDNESDAY, 6 p.m. CT vs. Coastal Carolina » Illini Slugger (foot long bacon wrapped hot dog) // Baseball Bingo
PREVIEW
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Illinois baseball team welcomes No. 19 Coastal Carolina to Illinois Field for a rare midweek series Tuesday-Wednesday. The Illini and Chanticleers meet in Champaign for the first time ever after Illinois has made trips to Coastal in six straight seasons including this year.
Illinois (17-8) looks to rebound from getting swept in a three-game series at Iowa last weekend. The Illini outhit Iowa 26-22 in the series but failed to get timely hits and issued too many free passes on the mound. Despite losing four straight games, Illinois is still No. 16 in the latest RPI with the No. 37 strength of schedule.
Coastal Carolina (20-8-1) was up to No. 12 in the D1Baseball top 25 last week before dropping two of three against Arkansas State last weekend. The Chanticleers beat then-No. 25 Illinois 11-3 on March 1 to hand the Illini their first loss of 2019.Â
Coastal's strength is its lineup, which has produced a .307 team batting average and 33 home runs over the first 29 games. The Illini counter with a pitching staff that owns a 3.39 team ERA and .216 batting average against.Â
Tuesday's game will be televised nationally on Big Ten Network, while Wednesday will be streamed on BTN Plus (subscription required).. Dave Loane has the radio call for both games on the Fighting Illini Sports Network.
NOTES
• Illinois is hosting Coastal Carolina for the first time ever. The Illini have visited Coastal in six straight seasons (including this season), as the two teams have met 13 times in the last 10 years.Â
• Illinois and Coastal Carolina have played at least once in eight of the last 10 seasons since first meeting in 2010.
• No. 19 Coastal Carolina is tied for the highest ranked team to visit Illinois Field since No. 8 Vanderbilt was in Champaign for the 2015 Super Regional (tied with No. 19 Minnesota in 2016).
• Coastal Carolina won the 2016 national championship.
• Coastal Carolina head coach Gary Gilmore won his 1,200 game on Saturday.Â
• Illinois has won 10 of its last 15 but lost four in a row.
• Hitting streaks: Massey 10, Sarver 7, Troik 5, Van Scoy 5
• Reached base streaks: Sarver 13, Massey 10, Van Scoy 8
• Illinois is 16-5 on the weekends (Fri.-Sun.) and 1-3 during the week (Mon.-Thur.).
• Illinois swept five of its first six weekends. The Illini swept three of its first four weekends for the first time since beginning to regularly play February games in 1982.Â
• Illinois started the season 14-3, tied for the best start through 17 games in the last 60 years (Started 16-1 in 1959). The 14-3 start tied for the sixth-best 17-game start in program history.
• Illinois is 16-3 when allowing six or fewer runs, the only losses coming Tuesday at Indiana State and Saturday and Sunday at Iowa.
• Illinois is 15-1 when leading or tied after seven innings, the only loss coming Friday at Iowa.
• Illinois hitters are reaching 41.9 percent of the time when leading off an inning (93/222).
• Illinois has a fielding percentage of .980, slighty ahead of last year's single-season program record (.979).
• Illinois started the season 6-0 and was ranked No. 25 by D1Baseball before dropping three of four games against No. 20 Coastal Carolina (0-1), Connecticut (0-1) and Northeastern (1-1) to start March. The Illini have won 10 of 15 since the 1-3 weekend at Coastal.
• Kellen Sarver is on a career-long 7-game hitting streak and 13-game reached base streak. Sarver entered the season in a battle for playing time at first base.Â
• Zac Taylor has missed the last 12 games with an injury. He was leading the Illinois' offense in average (.400), slugging (.760), hits (20), doubles (7), triples (1), homers (3), runs (15) and stolen bases (12) when he went down. Taylor was a home run away from the cycle Sunday at Grand Canyon but had to be removed from the game after injuring his ankle while trying to make a catch at the wall.Â
• Michael Massey, a Preseason All-American, has been unable to play defense this season due to an injury but has still started every game at DH. Massey homered in three straight games 3/9-3/16/2019.
UP NEXT
Illinois hosts Maryland this weekend for three games Friday-Sunday.
